The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors, and more particularly, to housings for electrical connectors.
Electrical connector systems are commonly used to interconnect electrical components together. For example, electrical connector systems are sometimes used to electrically connect two printed circuits (sometimes referred to as “circuit boards”) together. To interconnect the printed circuits, an electrical connector of one of the electrical components is mated with an electrical connector of the other electrical component. As the electrical connectors are mated together, electrical contacts of the connectors engage each other to electrically connect the connectors, and thereby the electrical components, together.
The electrical connectors hold the electrical contacts in housings that include mating interfaces that mate together and mounting interfaces that mount on the electrical components. The electrical contacts typically extend through contact openings that extend through the mating and mounting interfaces of the housing. For example, the electrical contacts are held in the contact openings of the housing such that mating segments of the electrical contacts extend along the mating interface of the housing. Mounting segments of the electrical contacts extend along the mounting interface of the housing for engagement with the electrical component.
The housings of electrical connectors that mate together to electrically connect two electrical components are discrete components that have different geometries, for example different sizes and/or shapes. Because of the different geometry of the connector housings, an electrical performance of the connector housings varies, such as at the mounting interfaces of the two connector housings. For example, the different geometries may cause the mounting segments of the electrical contacts of one of the connectors to experience different impedance, more noise, more crosstalk, and/or more signal degradation than the mounting segments of the electrical contacts of the other connector. One example of a different geometry between two connector housings includes differently sized and/or shaped contact openings. The differently sized and/or shaped contact openings between the two connector housings may cause the electrical performance of the system to vary at the contact openings of the two connector housings. Moreover, the different geometries of the connector housings may increase a complexity of the system and/or may increase a difficulty and/or cost of fabricating the connector housings.